Sergio Perez says race wins are now his “target” after Red Bull claimed a one-two finish at Imola.
The Mexican capitalised on a slow start by Charles Leclerc to run second before keeping the Monegasque at bay until the Ferrari driver spun at the Variante Alta, easing Checo’s run to a second consecutive P2 result.
But with Red Bull now appearing to have the upper hand over their Italian rivals in the pecking order, Perez is not satisfied with being second best.
“That’s the target,” he said of wanting to add to his current tally of two Formula 1 wins, “but this was a great day for the team.
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“We’ve been unlucky, the start [of the season] has been so difficult for us, so it’s great to see everyone smiling.
“There are still a few bits we need to make better, but I’m very happy for Max [Verstappen] and his win.”
A dominant weekend at Imola was also exactly what Red Bull needed following three retirements due to reliability issues in the opening three races.
“It’s fantastic, one point off a maximum score over the whole weekend,” team boss Christian Horner said via RACER.
“One-three (in the Sprint), one-two (in the Grand Prix), fastest lap… So it was just the rebound that we needed after the disappointment of Australia a couple of weeks ago.
“It was a phenomenal team performance because we took a bit of a risk coming into the weekend with a couple of small parts that we introduced to the car, which is always tricky when you’ve only got one session, but we attacked the weekend from the word go and both drivers have been unbelievable.
Anyone else feel like they’re seeing dou-Bull? ? #ImolaGP ?? pic.twitter.com/EAo9aH0dX1
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) April 25, 2022
“Both Max and Checo have driven brilliantly this weekend and that one-two finish is all credit to the team.
“A brilliant pit stop strategy, but also back in the factory in Milton Keynes. The hard effort and work after the disappointment of Australia, to come back with a result like that here in Imola was one of our best ever results.”
Red Bull is now just 11 points behind Ferrari in the Constructors’ standings after the Scuderia had their worst result of the season in Italy, while Verstappen is Leclerc’s nearest challenger in the Drivers’ Championship albeit still 27 points behind.
“It’s so early in the championship there’s going to be swings and roundabouts,” Horner added.
“Obviously the DNFs have been costly, particularly for Max, but it’s a long, long season, and I think we’ll take a lot of confidence out of this weekend.
“The championship, obviously it was important for us to take some points off Ferrari which we’ve done in both championship tables so we’ll take that out of this weekend and try and build on it in Miami at an all-new circuit in a couple of weeks’ time.”
